HENRY PURCELL:Sound the trumpet, ’til around from Come ye sons of Art, away Z323 [2'26]In vain the Am’rous Flute and soft Guitar from Hail! bright Cecilia Z328 [6'06]O solitude, my sweetest choice! Z406 [5'44]Sing, sing ye druids from Bonduca, or The British Heroine Z574 [2'43]O dive custos Auriacae domus ‘An elegy upon the death of Queen Mary’ Z514 [7'04]No, resistance is but vain from The Maid’s Last Prayer, or Any rather than Fail Z601 [4'40]Hark how the songsters from Timon of Athens Z632 [3'06]Incassum Lesbia, incassum rogas ‘The Queen’s Epicedium’ Z383 [7'49]

JOHN BLOW:Ah, heav’n! What is’t I hear? [3'22]Ode on the death of Mr Henry Purcell [22'05]

This recording of duets by the great composers of the Restoration is one of the gems of Hyperion’s catalogue. It features the celebrated countertenors James Bowman and Michael Chance at the peak of their powers, and the combination of their two voices with the sympathetic accompaniment of The King’s Consort creates something uniquely glorious.

Purcell was a countertenor himself and in his writing for the voice produced some of his most felicitous music. John Blow, Purcell’s predecessor and successor as organist of Westminster Abbey, reached his compositional zenith with the extended duet (almost a small cantata) on the subjects of Purcell’s tragic early death and inextinguishable in?uence.

GRAMOPHONE CRITICS’ CHOICE

‘A sparkling collection which shows both the composer and these ?ne artists in inspirational form. The performances are joyous, witty and ravishing in their Purcellian melancholy’

(The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)

‘A disc no baroque music anglophile will wish to be without, for it is a vocal tour de force’